either by itself, or as compared to other languages?

My reason has nothing to do with the language.

I like working with Java because of the open culture and tools around it.

There's an enormous wealth of open source libraries available, and Java developers tend to be very open about sharing code. In the MS world, folks tend to be very reserved about sharing code.

For the most part, Java devs tend to look for ways to improve practices. For example, Java devs started using the MVC pattern in web dev around 10 years ago; currently it's the new thing in PHP and .net development.

There are awesome tools available to help monitor and improve code quality: Findbugs/PMD/Crap4j/Checkstyle (to name a few). Then things like Hudson and Sonar can aggregate the results of all of those for easy use/exploration. The best part is, the best tools are free; because, the community finds sharing ways to improve to be very valuable.

As for the language itself? meh. It's just a statically typed general purpose language.
Though you can compile Java to native machine code, it's generally better to run in a VM. The latest VM's have some pretty cool features, like runtime optimization. That's where the code is analyzed while it's running and modified (optimized) based on how it's used. You just can't do that with a compiler.

as always, an incredible response with some valuable info. Thank you.

I'm not Java developer, so I'm talking just like another computer user. Honestly, I don't like Java because it seems to be slooooooooo. Well, it's also possible I have been using applications coded by stupid Java programmers, but all Java pps I have ever used were too slow.

seems to be of the most popular languages now though.

albeit, yeah, i've experienced the loading process of various programs coded in java (like yourself) from time to time.


FTP programs, especially.

Java is a good language for learning the concepts of object-oriented programming, without having to deal with pointers and memory allocation and all that. Not that pointers aren't a good thing to learn, but Java seems like a good beginner language to me.

As for what Java is good for, try to think of applications you might want or use and then try to make it. For example, I once made an intsant-message-like chat client that communicated over the internet. Programming a GUI for your application takes a little time to learn but eventually isn't that hard to implement. My dad wants me to program him a picture organizing program, so that will be my next Java project. Java can be applied to lots of things, so anything you might want to make, chances are you can do it with Java.

Other languages can do the same things, and they may even be better at it, but Java is definitely worth learning if you are going into either hardware or software.

why is it good to know Java for hardware?